bitter coffee so she’s standing there— in vaulted two-storey morning light Bratz Doll Angel engulfed by Redemption coffee shop’s bustling glory ass as tight as a peach the contour of her muscled thighsshowcased by a definite size six boot-cut black yoga pants draped over platform Docs topped with a brightly-colored cap-sleeve and she’s me with […]
Read more "Natasha Deonarain ~ BITTER COFFEE"Cantata some laughed, some wept,most stayed silent.i must hold my posture,face the onlookers with steady eyes.many hide behind their newspapers,a few pull out handkerchiefs.i lock my stance, toes gripping the ground.a boy with a black bag stares, unblinking—i almost dropped the bird.from my chest / a crimson bird emerges / we are told not to […]
Read more "Jennifer Choi ~ Cantata"Old Fiddle Man Old daddy man playing fiddle man in a family youth band. He was the star. Crowds paid & rushed through that door, dancing clapping to hear a few slim notes for just transitory seconds a few brief notes only realizing the ephemeral rhythm man before he died. Dance, dance, dance, fiddle man […]
Read more "Michael Lee Johnson ~ Old Fiddle Man"With a Partner Like You I could win some championships in Tucson, Honolulu, and PhoenixWe could get married and have a baby and eat some noodlesWe could doctor and teach and sell houses and preach with the HubbardsWe could coach and throw a wet sponge at a roachWe could eat dimsum and have some funHeck, […]
Read more "Robert Beckvall ~ With a Partner Like You"Baffling As a would-be baffler, I’m engaged in creating something fool-proof. But there’s such a wide variety of fools that I don’t know how to baffle them all. Fools come in many stripes and furs, demonstrate a myriad of facets, advocate a host of harebrained actions, override some basic setups, and dare to wreck whatever’s […]
Read more "jacquelyn shah ~ baffling"Elon, Extraterrestrial Elon has reverse engineered our trajectory. To mars. A dreamer and futurist who thinks out of the box, he’s clearly well ahead of his time. And ours. There is no comparison. In light of the 8.2 billion people now on this planet, his campaign to personally proffer seed to repopulate the world has […]
Read more "Karen Schauber ~ Elon, Extraterrestrial"i want a requiem by a requiem for (birdfolk in the Xingqinggong Park and elsewhere) sparrows and brownie song thrushes moiling rustling blades panicles scattered tree nuts fallen leaves taking death with such light heart they have gone live again flickering flames like acorns and filberts fed by sun-eating leaves they’ve made themselves plump as […]
Read more "Lucie Chou ~ i want a requiem by a requiem for"Holed up in a filthy duvet tightly bundled upwith the TV mutedscrolling YouTube shortstrying to escape the shameof not being able to remember getting homehow do you purge itis it enough to sweat it outmaybe I should go sit in a boxand tell the Fatherfingers grasping at the rosariesdirty words reverberating fromthe walnut panelling or perhaps […]
Read more "Michael Ashley ~ Holed up in a filthy duvet"Unanswered Prayers You didn’t seem to mind the unanswered prayers of your bebop aloneless. I brought you liquor and smokes, a dwelling place of vinyl: Clifford Brown, Art Blakey and the Bird! Your eyes drifted to carefully coiffed girls in the pew and their angularity of vision. I held you blameless, but don’t think that […]
Read more "3 JAZZ POEMS ~ CONNIE JOHNSON"Cow Creek What we called a crick,no wider than a standing leapone side to the other,a rat snake stretched in pasture sun,kinks shear as paper cuts wherethe water fought to go straight.We flipped cow pattieswith pocket knivesfor worms that writhedon hooks bouncedwith a neat underhandfrom grass into the waterupstream from a bend, floatedto where we […]
Read more "Matt Thomas ~ COW CREEK"
Cacti Fur 